Jon Elder

Seeiously, who was this made for??? I can't remember being more disappointed in a movie which I saw in theaters. I saw it at an early showing and felt like I was dying inside. A packed crowd sat silent, stone faced, with constant phones being flipped over, no doubt to check how much time passed since they last looked. The crowd, complete with multiple poor souls dressed in full Joker costumes, walked out of the theater as though their favorite sports team just got blown out. "Trash, hot garbage, and bull****" are among the comments as people walked by. Parents literally apologizing to their disappointed kids. I also had tickets to see it with family this opening weekend. I immediately requested a refund. The first time I have ever done so. On top of a bland, paper-thin plot that creeps along at a glacial pace, the "musical" numbers were nothing short of excruciating. I admittingly am not a fan of musicals, but I have seen musicals both in the theater that I enjoyed as well as ones live on Broadway that I thought were great. This was different. This was more like "sing-talking," and each song stood to stop all chance of story building dead in its tracks. Either Gaga is absolutely awful as an actress/singer, or she was just used incredibly poorly. This movie lacked plot, drama, plot, action, humor, plot, good writing, and... plot. Either people in Hollywood really are so deeply wrapped in their own cocoon surrounded by yes-men that enable this type of nonsense, or Todd Phillips simply went out of his way to make a film as a slap in the face to its core audience. He came out and declined it was a musical before it came out, trying to salvage some audience that he must've known would fall off the cliff once audience reviews came in. The dude should offer a refund for everyone who saw and believed his comments about not being a musical. Film historians will look back at this stretch of DC movie releases in sheer awe of the studios reckless stupidity.